Disaster Movie: HBO Preps Film on Financial Collapse

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With the economy still in the doldrums, HBO is hedging its bets that America is ready to watch the Wall Street machinations that wiped out trillions of dollars in market capitalization and led the country to a current 9.7% unemployment rate, according to ABC news.

The studio plans to make a television movie about the 2008 financial meltdown based on the book "Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System -- and Themselves." The tome, written by New York Times journalist Andrew Sorkin, focuses on figures like Richard Fuld (former chief executive of the now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers), John Mack (former CEO of Morgan Stanley), U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his predecessor, Henry Paulson.

The film does not have an air date and no actors have yet been attached to play the central figures. HBO, which has a history of dramatizing recent events (think 2008's "Recount" about the 2000 U.S. Presidential elections), has long been on the hunt for the right narrative about the economic downfall.

As long as they can pump some life into this drama off the spreadsheet, we're ready to applaud the ambition shown. If every unemployed American watches, we have a monster hit.

Clearly, there is some thirst for catharsis, at least in Hollywood. "Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," the sequel to his 1987 critique of New York's money men, will hit theaters this spring.